Children & Families

Mothers Working Late:
Children whose mothers work during the evening are less likely to do
well in school than youngsters whose mothers work traditional hours,
according to a recent study conducted by a researcher at Harvard
University's school of public health.

The national study of 1,878 working mothers found that for every
hour the parent worked between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m., her child was 16
percent more likely to score in the bottom quartile on math tests. The
test results came from children in kindergarten through 12th grade.

For students scoring in the bottom quartile in reading and
vocabulary, the study also found, 16 percent had mothers who worked in
the evenings, compared with 12 percent of the students who scored above
the bottom quartile.

What's more, children whose mothers worked at night were three times
more likely to get into trouble at school or be suspended than those
whose mothers were home in the evening, according to the study.

"One of the most important factors affecting how children fare in
school is parental involvement," writes Dr. Jody S. Heymann, a
professor of health and social behavior and the author of the
study.

The research is compiled in a new book titled The Widening Gap:
Why America's Working Families Are in Jeopardy and What Can Be Done
About It.

Dr. Heymann and other researchers working on the project also found
that children who were in the bottom quartile in reading and
mathematics were less likely to have parents who had such employment
benefits as paid vacation time, sick leave, or flexible working
hours.

Poor Children Bypassed: Only 12 percent of the low-income
children who were eligible for federal child-care assistance in 1999
actually received it, according to statistics released last month by
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna E. Shalala.

A companion report, prepared by the Cambridge, Mass.-based research
organization Abt Associates, confirmed that even though states have
increased their spending on child-care subsidies, many families are
still going unserved.